The qualification cycle for the Indian weightlifters for the 2024 Paris Olympics will begin with the World Championships scheduled in Bogota, Colombia from December 5 to 16.
As many as four Indian lifters, including the 2020 Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Mirabai Chanu, will compete in the event with an eye on the Olympic quota.
Ahead of the Worlds, these lifters have planned to prepare at St Louis, USA. A proposal in this regard has been sent to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) for approval. Apart from Mirabai (49kg), other Indians, who will participate in the Worlds, are Bindyarani Devi (59kg), Achinta Sheuli (73kg) and Gurdeep Singh (+109kg).
"As per the proposal, the lifters will leave for the USA on November 12 and train there till November 30. The athletes will then directly head to Colombia for participation in the Worlds," head coach Vijay Sharma, who will accompany the lifters to the USA, told this daily.
Elaborating further on sending only four lifters for the event, Sharma said, "A few lifters including Sanket Sargar and Jeremy Lalrinnunga are still undergoing rehabilitation after sustaining injuries that's why the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWLF) has decided to send four athletes for the Worlds."
Earlier, the plan was to send the Indian contingent to Colombia so that the lifters can get acclimatised ahead of the Olympic qualifying event. However, the response of the host federation was not positive, making its Indian counterpart look for an alternate venue for training.
"We requested the Colombian federation but didn't get a favourable reply. We wanted our lifters to train in the same time zone. But once Colombia didn't accept our request, we chose the USA which also has the same time zone, fulfilling our objective," Sahdev Yadav, the IWLF president, told this daily.
There will be 10 medal events in the weightlifting competition in Paris — five each in men's and women's categories. The international body will publish the Olympic Qualification Ranking (OQR) of each weight category at the end of the qualification period.
The OQR will be based on the best total results (snatch, and clean and jerk) the athletes manage to lift in the seven competitions during the qualification cycle, which will end in April 2024. According to the OQR, the top 10 athletes of each Olympic weight category will be allocated their quota place.
"It's mandatory for lifters to compete in five competitions during this period. It's different from the 2020 Tokyo Games qualification criteria where the results of the four competitions were taken into consideration to calculate Robi points (official IWF calculation method). This time, the best result from the five events will help in establishing OQR in each Olympic weight category," said head coach Sharma.
France are guaranteed four quota places (two men and as many women) by virtue of being the host. Apart from this, athletes can also qualify via continental representation and university places.